What's that wet stuff in the air?

Oh yeah--rain.

After about a month with hardly any, going outside to get the morning paper...and both of us coming in slightly damp...was a bit like one of those Ah--The Monsoon Season Begins nature documentaries.

Not that the sunny summer hasn't been fun, but the garden definitely needs a good drink.

What's for supper? Euro-flavour barbecue

Tonight's menu:

Really good barbecued sausage
Kasha
Salad (:romaine, mushrooms, zucchini from the garden)
Corn on the Cob (from the vegetable stand)

Yellow watermelon (also from the vegetable stand)
Wafer cookies

What we're really doing for school? Revisions to Crayons' fall plans

CRAYONS' GRADE FIVE BOOKLIST AND SCHEDULE, 2011-2012
ADAPTED FROM AMBLESIDE ONLINE YEAR FIVE – Changes as of July 2011

(Changes are in italics)

DAILY LESSONS

Penmanship or Copywork  

Learning Language Arts Through Literature, Tan Book (first half of book only). Reason: I wanted this year's language arts to be very self-contained and clearly laid out. Reason for the Tan Book (Grade 6): I already had the teacher's guide and the level seemed appropriate for Crayons. Reason for scheduling only half the book: it's huge.

Math: Math Mammoth Light Blue Grade 4/Grade 5. Calculadder drills. Various math supplements and manipulatives. Pocket Posters.
Math Pet Store, by Simply Charlotte Mason. Key to Fractions, Book 4 of 4. Other books such as Family Math, Math Detecitve (Critical Thinking). Reason for change: Grade 5 is always a difficult year, math-wise; we already had the download of Math Pet Store and decided to try it.

Foreign language: French curriculum to be decided; probably Mission Monde Grade 5.
We have bought Mission Monde Level 3, which is the grade 5 level. I think this will be a great program.

WEEKLY LESSONS

Art Appreciation: follow AO rotation, possibly incorporating Canadian art as well. Possible artists: Winslow Homer, Mary Cassatt, Jean-Honoré Fragonard. There are "Artists' Specials" DVDs about Mary Cassatt and Winslow Homer.

Art Instruction: Artistic Pursuits Grade 4-6, Book II. Includes study of American paintings.

Grammar, other English studies: emphasizing more writing this year, transitioning to written narrations and longer dictation. Supplement with dictionary, Thesaurus, spelling resources.
Learning Language Arts Through Literature, Tan Book (see notes above).

Correspond history readings with a timeline or century book and map.

Handicrafts, homekeeping, life skills. Include books such as All-Girl Crafts by Kathy Ross, or Mothers and Daughters at Home: 35 Projects to Make Together, by Charlotte Lyons.

Music Appreciation: Mozart, Brahms, and Stravinsky.  Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts book and record set; Opal Wheeler series biographies; Igor Stravinsky by Mike Venezia.
We lucked out this summer and found two older boxed sets of Brahms and Stravinsky—yeah!


Folksongs: Follow AO rotation, using printouts, book of Canadian folksongs

Hymns: Follow AO rotation.  Mennonite Hymnal, printouts from Hymntime.com, You-tube videos.

Plutarch’s Lives: Follow AO rotation, use printouts for Poplicola and Dion. For variety, use Stories of Alexander (Grimal) in Term 3.

Shakespeare plays: Either The Tempest or Two Gentlemen of Verona; Romeo and Juliet; possibly a third. We are going to skip Shakespeare in the first term—Plutarch is enough to start with.


SPECIFIC SUBJECTS


BIBLE AND CHRISTIAN STUDIES

Bible books to be studied: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Book of Revelation (as recommended in Teaching Children). Lives of David and Solomon.
This seemed to be too much; I scheduled readings and discussion questions from the book Search the Scriptures instead.

Memory work: Term 1, Ten Commandments (with questions and answers) from Luther's Small Catechism. Term 2 & 3, passages from the Epistles. Term's Psalm.

Church history: Makers of the English Bible, by Cyril James Davey (8 chapters).

Resources:
Bible
New Testament in Modern English for Schools (Phillips)
Luther’s Small Catechism (section on the Ten Commandments)
Search the Scriptures
Reference books: NIV Bible Dictionary, Bible atlas, Bible Book of Lists

HISTORY (1800-1914)

Canada: The New Nation, by Edith Deyell (covers 1800-1900, incorporates some U.S. history)
***Story of the World Volume 4, by Susan Wise Bauer (chapters 1-20)
*** Story of Canada, by Janet Lunn, chapter on the Laurier era (1896-1914)

Term One: War of 1812 through Lord Durham (approx. 1800-1845). Emphasis on the settlement of Upper Canada (Ontario), including local history.

Term Two: Fur trade through the American Civil War and Confederation (approx. 1845-1870).

Term Three: Opening the West through 1914 (approx. 1870-1914).

Supplements: The Kids Book of Canada's Railway and How the CPR Was Built, by Deborah Hodge. Occasional DVDs from Canada: A People’s History. Professor Noggin’s History/Geography of Canada card games. Everything You Need to Know About Canadian Social Studies Homework, by Anne Zeman and Kate Kelly. Canada map puzzle. Learn the provinces and capitals, and geographic features of Canada (rivers, mountains).

HISTORY TALES AND/OR BIOGRAPHY

* The Trail of the Conestoga, by Mabel Dunham
* "Sisters in the Wilderness" (DVD), about Susanna Moodie and Catharine Parr Traill
** *** Passion for the Impossible: The Life of Lilias Trotter by Miriam Huffman Rockness
***Story of My Life, by Helen Keller

GEOGRAPHY

The Book of Marvels: The Occident and/or Second Book of Marvels: The Orient by Richard Halliburton
I had this scheduled, but it seems like we have a lot of history reading, so I took it out again; we'll probably read it next year. The French study is based on a missionary family in Burundi and includes a lot of cultural information and geography; Story of the World has bits from all over the world as well.

NATURAL HISTORY / SCIENCE

The Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock; for variety, use How Nature Works, Kids Can nature guides, Canadian Wild Flowers (Catharine Parr Traill).
Our main book will be The ABC's of Nature (found at a rummage sale).


Supplies for Nature Study:
Nature notebook and pencils or paint for each student
Begin to build a library of regional field guides
Plenty of time to allow Nature Study to be a fun learning experience for both parent and child

* ** Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley, second half of book
*** Wild Animals I Have Known by Ernest Thompson Seton OR one of the William J. Long books from other AO years, OR The Lovely & the Wild, by Louise de Kiriline Lawrence (about birds of northern Ontario)
I have scheduled Seton for the last part of the year, but I know some of the sad endings may bother Crayons, so it could change.

All Terms:
The Story of Inventions by Michael J. McHugh and Frank P. Bachman
Physics Lab in a Housewares Store by Robert Friedhoffer
Supplements for study of inventions: Canada Invents, by Susan Hughes; I Wonder Why Zippers Have Teeth, by Barbara Taylor; The Inventors’ Specials DVDs; Switched On, Flushed Down, Tossed Out: Investigating the Hidden Workings of Your Home, by Trudee Romanek.

I have changed this a bit. We are going to use The New Way Things Work along with Physics Lab in a Housewares Store and Physics Lab in a Hardware Store. The last part of the year will focus on electricity.

SCIENCE BIOGRAPHY

* Dr Beaumont and the Man with a Hole in His Stomach, by Sam Epstein, Beryl Epstein and Joseph Scrofani
***Destination Moon, by James Irwin

Choice of other biographies: Alexander Graham Bell, Michael Faraday, Marie Curie, George Washington Carver, Thomas Edison
The only science biography I have scheduled is The Canadians: Alexander Graham Bell. Crayons read Eleanor Doorly's book about Marie Curie last year, and she learned about G.W. Carver at Sunday School (of all places). Some of the other books may go into the free reading basket.

HEALTH AND HOME STUDIES

Christian Liberty Nature Reader, Book 5 by Worthington Hooker, edited by Michael J. McHugh (mostly about the human body) (Supplement with relevant sections from How Nature Works)
I had scheduled this in, but took it out again; there's a lot of overlap between it, the nutrition book, and the ABCs of Nature. We have other anatomy-type supplements (books and models) to go along with the body studies.

Nutrition 101: Choose Life!: A Family Nutrition and Health Program, by Debra Raybern, N.D., M.H., C.N.C., I.C.A.; Sera Johnson, B.MU; Laura Hopkins, B.S.; Karen Hopkins, B.S. (selected chapters)
We are going to do two units from this book, spread throughout the year.

Book on girls’ health
Crayons jumped the gun on me and read the book this summer.

Cooking: Little House Cookbook; The Busy People's Naturally Nutritious, Decidedly Delicious Fast Foodbook, by Sharon Elliot; Nutrition 101 recipes

Sewing group with friends, crafts at home.

Organized Kidz, by Debbie R. Williams and David P. Williams (we've used this before but it's time to review)
I was going to schedule this in, but can't find space...we may just do some of it when we have time.

POETRY

Poetry anthology / individual poets: possibly Poetry for Young People: Robert Browning; Poetry for Young People: Walt Whitman.
I chose two anthologies and we will be reading a poem each day from those.

LITERATURE

* Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens, or another Dickens novel
I've scheduled Great Expectations, one of my own favourites.

** Little Women (Part One, 23 chapters) plus  Barron's activity kit

*** King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table, by Roger Lancelyn Green. For reference: The Search for King Arthur, by Christopher Hibbert.

All terms: stories from My Book House, e.g. Cuculain, Rustem, Song of Roland, Norse legends.

ADDITIONAL BOOKS FOR FREE READING

*Laura’s Choice, by Connie Brummel Cook (about Laura Secord)
**Invincible Louisa (biography of Louisa May Alcott)
** Thee, Hannah! by Marguerite De Angeli, and other books about the Underground Railroad, e.g. Underground to Canada by Barbara Smucker, The Last Safe House by Barbara Greenwood
***Pioneer Girl, by Maryanne Caswell
Canadian Crusoes, by Catharine Parr Traill
Hitty: Her First Hundred Years, by Rachel Field
Eight Cousins, by Louisa May Alcott
Captains Courageous, by Rudyard Kipling
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Lad: A Dog (or another book in the Lad series; many are online) by Albert Payson Terhune
The Treasure Seekers by Edith Nesbit
The Wouldbegoods by Edith Nesbit
Caddie Woodlawn, by Carol Ryrie Brink.
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin
Hans Brinker by Mary Mapes Dodge
Crystal Mountain, by Belle Dorman Rugh
Re-read the Narnia books or The Princess & the Goblin.

FOR FUN:

Alvin's Secret Code, by Clifford B. Hicks, and others in the same series (if available)
The Trolley Car Family, by Eleanor Clymer (if available)
Father's Big Improvements by Caroline D. Emerson (if available)
Stories by Stephen Leacock (how could I forget those?)

Simple Woman's Daybook, Summer Edition

FOR TODAY... Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Outside my window... Early morning, hot and sticky...we need rain.
I am thinking...about the Vacation Bible Camp class that I'm teaching this week with Ponytails.
I am thankful for... The Apprentice finishing her apprenticeship! Yay! I'm now the mother of a full-fledged hairstylist.  (Does that mean we'll have to change her blog name?)

I am wearing... pants and a t-shirt.

I am remembering...
I am going...to be helping out at the thrift store this afternoon, after we dash home from VBC and grab a sandwich.
I am currently reading... How the Irish Saved Civilization.
I am hoping... that we get some full-sized zucchini soon.

On my mind...East Africa.

From the kitchen... Going to put Chicken Sloppy Joes into the slow cooker while I'm eating lunch.


Noticing that... not sure, I'll have to try again later with this one.

Pondering these words... "we're leaving in ten minutes!"

Visit our hostess at http://thesimplewomansdaybook.blogspot.com/.

For your pondering: on ideas and creativity

Worth reading at the ChildLight USA blog:  "Being Swept Along is Not Enough," by Rebekah Brown Hierholzer.

"What I do know is that the creating process doesn’t always look finished or polished.  It’s often messy or noisy.  It is replete with all the flaws that come with being human, but it is exhilarating.  One grand morning, a group of 8 and 9 year olds and I took great delight in contemplating the Creation story as we never had before.  What must it have been like to hear the great and roaring bottomless depths of oceans being pushed within their boundaries for the first time?  Or for fully grown trees to instantly, at a Word, break forth from the ground?  Or for the earth to be filled suddenly with great herds of ultrasauruses with footsteps like thunder?  The glorious noise of it all!  These images we imagined of the Creator creating with wild abandon and sheer joy helped free us a bit more to “break forth” ourselves."

Another side of thrifting...the Squirrels volunteer

What is this thing?

It's a Swift Attacher.  Did you know that?  It's the plastic thingie that holds the price tag on clothes in a store.

For the past few months, Mama Squirrel and the two younger Squirrelings have been volunteering at a thrift store.

Why we never thought of doing it before, I don't know.  The girls have been raised on almost-weekly church sales, yard sales, and thrift shopping.  But the opportunity to volunteer never came up until this year, and we suddenly realized that even Crayons is old enough now to really help.  So the three of us now spend a couple of afternoons a month sorting and pricing clothes, books, or whatever else we're asked to help out with.

Ponytails dresses mannequins.  Mama Squirrel and Crayons load up bookshelves.  Mama Squirrel unloads garbage bags full of clothes.  Crayons cranks out sticky price tags for books, and Ponytails shoots Swift Attachers/plastic thingies through blouses and jeans.  It's a busy place and there are usually at least a few other people working in the back room, at the cash, hanging clothes, or unloading boxes outside the back door.  Plus the customers--who says homeschoolers don't get socialization?

The book corner has also been educational for Mama Squirrel in other ways...but that's a post in itself.

Favourite read right now: Guy Mannering, by Sir Walter Scott

How do you manage to spruce up someone's clothes when they can't be bothered to notice what they wear, but would be insulted if you asked them to change?

Honest Mac-Morlan received this mandate with great joy, but pondered much upon executing that part of it which related to newly attiring the worthy Dominie. He looked at him with a scrutinising eye, and it was but too plain that his present garments were daily waxing more deplorable. To give him money, and bid him go and furnish himself, would be only giving him the means of making himself ridiculous....On the other hand, to bring a tailor to measure him, and send home his clothes, as for a school-boy, would probably give offence. At length Mac-Morlan resolved to consult Miss Bertram [a young lady whose late father was a friend and employer of the Dominie], and request her interference. She assured him that, though she could not pretend to superintend a gentleman's wardrobe, nothing was more easy than to arrange the Dominie's.

'At Ellangowan,' she said, 'whenever my poor father thought any part of the Dominie's dress wanted renewal, a servant was directed to enter his room by night, for he sleeps as fast as a dormouse, carry off the old vestment, and leave the new one; nor could any one observe that the Dominie exhibited the least consciousness of the change put upon him on such occasions.'

Mac-Morlan, in conformity with Miss Bertram's advice, procured a skilful artist, who, on looking at the Dominie attentively, undertook to make for him two suits of clothes, one black and one raven-grey, and even engaged that they should fit him--as well at least (so the tailor qualified his enterprise) as a man of such an out-of-the-way build could be fitted by merely human needles and shears. When this fashioner had accomplished his task, and the dresses were brought home, Mac-Morlan, judiciously resolving to accomplish his purpose by degrees, withdrew that evening an important part of his dress, and substituted the new article of raiment in its stead. Perceiving that this passed totally without notice, he next ventured on the waistcoat, and lastly on the coat.

When fully metamorphosed, and arrayed for the first time in his life in a decent dress, they did observe that the Dominie seemed to have some indistinct and embarrassing consciousness that a change had taken place on his outward man. Whenever they observed this dubious expression gather upon his countenance, accompanied with a glance that fixed now upon the sleeve of his coat, now upon the knees of his breeches, where he probably missed some antique patching and darning, which, being executed with blue thread upon a black ground, had somewhat the effect of embroidery, they always took care to turn his attention into some other channel, until his garments, 'by the aid of use, cleaved to their mould.' The only remark he was ever known to make on the subject was, that 'the air of a town like Kippletringan seemed favourable unto wearing apparel, for he thought his coat looked almost as new as the first day he put it on, which was when he went to stand trial for his license as a preacher.'

I can still cook gluten-free

We just finished a short-term Treehouse experiment with gluten-free meals.

Compared to our experiences three years ago, I think gluten-free food is not only easier to come by than it was then, but in general it tastes better.  That may also be because I'm a better cook or because I approached it differently this time, but still.  Three years ago, we didn't have Stephanie O'Dea's cookbooks and blog, with her nonchalant approach to gf cooking. [Clarification: I don't mean she is nonchalant about her family's gluten intolerance, just about her cooking style.] And all the other blogs and resources out there...I mean, even three years ago gf was becoming the "new black" for food in this region, as I discovered around that same time when I had to go looking for low-sodium instead.  ("Low-sodium baking powder? No, we never carry that.  But we have lots of gluten-free foods...")  But I think it's even better now.

Since it was only an experiment and not a matter of life and death, I didn't balk at scooping gf pancake mix and all-purpose flour mix from the bins at the bulk store.  (For some people, the risk of cross-contamination would make that a very bad idea.)  The pancake mix turned out to be very tasty, and, in fact, it also made a good base for these sugar cookies.  We also discovered the Duinkerken brand of gluten-free white bread mix, and baked it according to Stephanie's directions in the slow cooker.  Much easier than some of the bread-machine failures I had last time, and it tasted all right too.  (Although what kind of bread mix requires you to add your own yeast? Just saying.)

The pasta situation doesn't seem to have changed much in three years:  the cheaper Canadian brand of rice pasta still cooks up mushy and tasteless, but there's always Tinkyada if you want to spend a bit more.  (I liked their little shells.)

A commercial package of "breakfast bars" reportedly didn't taste that great, so I made a gf version of Breakfast Cookies.

The pièce de résistance was supposed to be a slow-cooker version of Triple Chocolate Mess, which is in the More Make it Fast, Cook  It Slow book (with a gf variation) but is not on the Year of Slow Cooking Website except as a link.  As far as taste and mouthfeel went, there was no problem; the bulk store also sells a gf chocolate cake mix which worked fine, and I honestly don't think anyone would notice that it was gf.   But considering the expense of the ingredients and the end result--gf aside--I had a couple of eaters say that they actually preferred our usual, much plainer slow cooker chocolate dessert. (Note: that one is from Canada's Best Slow Cooker Recipes, by Donna-Marie Pye.)

Go figure.

Best thing from the weekend paper: On Aristotle, Churchill, and magnanimity

Seen in the New York Times Book Review (thanks, Grandpa Squirrel): Harry V. Jaffa's review of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics (translated by Robert C. Bartlett and Susan D. Collins, The University of Chicago Press).

"Some time in the 1920s, the Conservative statesman F. E. Smith — Lord Birkenhead — gave a copy of the “Nicomachean Ethics” to his close friend Winston Churchill. He did so saying there were those who thought this was the greatest book of all time. Churchill returned it some weeks later, saying it was all very interesting, but he had already thought most of it out for himself. But it is the very genius of Aristotle — as it is of every great teacher — to make you think he is uncovering your own thought in his. In Churchill’s case, it is also probable that the classical tradition informed more of his upbringing, at home and at school, than he realized.

"In 1946, in a letter to the philosopher Karl Löwith, Leo Strauss mentioned how difficult it had been for him to understand Aristotle’s account of magnanimity, greatness of soul, in Book 4 of the “Ethics.”

"The difficulty was resolved when he came to realize that Churchill was a perfect example of that virtue. So Churchill helped Leo Strauss understand Aristotle! That is perfectly consistent with Aristotle’s telling us it does not matter whether one describes a virtue or someone characterized by that virtue. Where the “Ethics” stands among the greatest of all great books perhaps no one can say. That Aristotle’s text, which explores the basis of the best way of human life, belongs on any list of such books is indisputable."

From the archives: Happy Canada Day...cluck, cluck, cluck

First posted July 1, 2005. Reposted just for the nostalgia...and because we're visiting the same place today.

The Squirrels celebrated Canada Day today by taking the squirrellings to a nearby "heritage crossroads" (what used to be called a pioneer village) and then out for pizza (well, it's red and white anyway). Ponytails made beautiful paper flags for everyone. (Not all the squirrels are as good at drawing maple leaves as she is!)

This particular "village" is supposed to represent life around here in 1914, and on Canada Day--which was Dominion Day in 1914--admission is free and the village storefronts are decorated in red, white and blue. No, not the Stars and Stripes--the Union Jack--which was our flag in 1914.

The Apprentice and Ponytails had been to the village before, although Ponytails didn't remember much. Crayons had never been there before, and it was a lot of fun to see her reacting to things that until now had only been pictures in books. Even a stream, with a covered bridge over it (and maybe a troll underneath?), was something she does not see often. "Oh, a Stream!" She knows the word, but seeing the real thing is different. A locomotive, a pump, washboards, a loom, a chicken coop (which inspired a steady stream of "cluck, cluck, cluck" from Crayons), a really woolly sheep, three black pigs in a pen, big black woodstoves like the one in Paul Galdone's Little Red Hen...she also got to touch a slice taken off the bottom of a horse's hoof by the blacksmith! The late Joan Bodger wrote a book called How the Heather Looks, about her family's trip to England to look for things like Sherwood Forest and Wind in the Willows country; this was no less of a "books coming to life" trip for Crayons.